ESCAPING THE RAT RACE
When you're young, it is drilled into your head that you need to get a good job. However, what defines a good job? If you ask most people, a good job is one that pays very well. In today's modern economy, these jobs belong to doctors, lawyers, software engineers (and yes, regular engineers as well). With these high paying jobs, you can buy the sports car, the mansion, the condo by the ocean, and all the other amenities you've ever dreampt about.
But what if you don't have that perfect job? You still deserve the nice car and nice house you've always dreamed you'd have! Well, of course you could use financing options. Most people use these financing options when buying a new car, or buying a new house... pretty much every big purchase you can think of. Financing serves two purposes. 1) It helps you buy things now that you hope to afford in the future.. and 2) It keeps you working!
Now I'm going to propose to you a different way of thinking; take away from it what you will. What if instead of buying that new car, or that 4 bedroom house, you instead INVEST your money into a security that can "guarantee" you a return income? I'm talking about tried and true financial products such as the ETF's offered at VANGUARD? These ETF's have very steady returns, and are some of the best in the world.
https://investor.vanguard.com/etf/list#/etf/name/month-end-returns
The secret is to reinvest these returns to increase your overall size of your principal investment. The bigger the principal, the bigger your potential return. This reinvestment is called COMPOUND INTEREST, and it's the key to escaping the rat race!
BUT HERE'S THE KICKER
Eventually, by using your money to work for you, you will no longer need to work, as you can withdraw your return amount and live on the interest! You are now freed to use your time as you wish!
PAY YOURSELF FIRST! When you get your paycheck, take 10% and put it into a bank account. Then pay your bills. DO NOT touch this 10% it is your principal, and you will use it to make investments and grow your wealth.
Now take it a step further, if you take some of your money and invest it in CRYPTO CURRENCY, you can get even higher returns (although it is riskier). If you can make sound crypto investments, you can make more in a year than most people with full time jobs!
Bitcoin is a store of value that is IMMUNE to INFLATION. There are only ever going to be 21,000,000 BTC. It's deflationary nature makes it so that, so long as there is demand, eventually BTC will be worth MORE! That is a pretty sound investment.
If you want to learn more about Crypto investing, and how to spot a good investment, you can always join Stakepool.com teamspeak for 24-7 investment talk. Steemit user 
Another solid resource for those looking to learn more about Crypto is the 'Cryptocopia' slack channel. There are experienced traders there who are always happy to help introduce new traders to the crypto space.
You can request to join Cryptocopia here --> https://cryptocopia.herokuapp.com/
Whatever your investment style, safe or risky, always remember ---> TIME IN THE MARKET BEATS TIMING THE MARKET. Buy and Hold!
Hopefully you learned a little something from this article! Remember, your employer doesn't care about you, only the bottom line. Use your money to help YOU!
And who knows, maybe with all your newfound free time, you could make some extra money writing for FUN on STEEMIT!